Centre for Medical Engineering Research

You are here

Latest News & Events

2018

July 2018

8th World Congress of Biomechanics in Dublin

Professor Nicholas Dunne was involved in two oral podium presentations and one poster through his collaboration with Nottingham University, Queen’s University of Belfast and the Belfast Arthroplasty Research Trust. The oral podium presentations were presented by Prof Dunne (3D ceramic scaffolds for bone tissue engineered applications), Ross Blair (Processing-property investigations of PLLA-based coronary stents) and the poster was presented by John O’Connor (Incorporating Geometry from Radiographs in Musculoskeletal Models Influences Prediction of Hip Loading).

Professor Nicholas Dunne and Dr. Tanya Levingstone also co-chaired two session at the 8th World Congress of Biomechanics on the theme of “Multiscale Biomechanics of Scaffolds”. The session was listed as part of the Tissue Engineering Track, which was led by Professor Carlijn VC Bouten, Professor of Cell-Matrix Interaction, from the Soft Tissue Engineering & Mechanobiology group at Eindhoven University. Invited talks during the sessions were by Prof Matt Dalby and Prof Manuel Salmeron-Sanchez (both of University of Glasgow) and Dr. Hanna Isaksson of Lund University) Dalby and Salmeron-Sanchez spoke on the topics of “Nanokick: stimulation of osteogenesis by mesenchymal stem cells using a nanovibrational bioreactor” and “Dynamic microenvironments to promote integrin and growth factor receptor signalling in cell engineering”. Isaksson showcased the work her lab is doing on “Regenerating bone with biomimetic scaffolds in large defects”.

Recent Journal Publication

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast have published a research paper entitled “Processing-property relationships of biaxially stretched poly (L-lactic acid) sheet for application in coronary stents” in Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials.

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast and Belfast Arthroplasty Research Trust have published a research paper entitled “Effect of combined flexion and external rotation on measurements of the proximal femur fromanteroposterior pelvic radiographs” in Orthopaedics & Traumatology: Surgery & Research.

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast have published a book chapter entitled “DNA vaccination for cervical cancer: Strategic optimisation of RALA mediated gene delivery from a biodegradable microneedle system” in a book by Wiley entitled “Microneedles for Drug and Vaccine Delivery and Patient Monitoring”.

PhD Defense

Congratulations to John O’Connor (of Queen’s University Belfast) on the successful defense of his PhD thesis, which investigated population-level variability in biomechanical modelling of total hip replacement. John was supervised by Dr. Alex Lennon (of Queen’s University Belfast), Prof Nicholas Dunne, Prof David Beverland and Dr. Janet Hill (both of the Belfast Arthroplasty Research Trust)

May 2018

Recent Journal Publication

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast and Belfast Arthroplasty Research Trust have published a research paper entitled “Patient positioning and cup orientation during total hip arthroplasty: assessment of current UK practice” in Hip International.

Congratulations to Jonathan Acheson (of Queen’s University Belfast) on the successful defense of his PhD thesis, which focused on the optimisation of layer-by-layer assembled nanocomposite coated foams in terms of their hydrated properties in biomedical applications. Jonathan was supervised by Dr. Andrew Hamilton (of Southampton University), Prof Nicholas Dunne and Dr. Alex Lennon (of Queen’s University Belfast).

April 2018

Recent Journal Publication

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have published a research paper entitled “Gene therapy with RALA/iNOS composite nanoparticles significantly enhances survival in a model of metastatic prostate cancer” in Cancer Nanotechnology.

Congratulations to Chiara MacBhrien (of Queen’s University Belfast) on the successful defense of her PhD thesis, which focused on the investigation of carbon nanotube reinforced bone cement fatigue in orthopaedic implants. Chiara was supervised by Professor Nicholas Dunne and Dr. Alex Lennon (of Queen’s University Belfast).

March 2018

Recent Journal Publication

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland have published a research paper entitled “DNA vaccination for cervical cancer: Strategic optimisation of RALA mediated gene delivery from a biodegradable microneedle system” in the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics.

Professor Nicholas Dunne and Professor Helen McCarthy of Queen's University Belfast have published a book chapter entitled "Hydrogels for Bone Regeneration" in the CRC Press publication "Hydrogels: Design, Synthesis and Application in Drug Delivery and Regenerative Medicine".

MEDeng is delighted to be leading a work package in the new €8m H2020 project PANBioRA (Personalised and/or Generalised Integrated Biomaterial Risk Assessment). Dr. Garrett McGuinness of MEDeng and Dr. Harry Esmonde of the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering will lead the DCU involvement. PANBioRA aims to provide a comprehensive solution for the time- and cost-effective risk assessment of: (i) new biomaterials under health or disease states or (ii) a given biomaterial for each patient in a personalised manner. It will standardise the evaluation of biomaterials and open the venue for pre-implantation, personalised diagnostics for biomaterial based applications. Updates and news at https://twitter.com/panbiora.

February 2018

New Postgraduate Student

The MEDeng Centre would like to welcome Badriah Fma Ali to the DCU. Badriah will be working on the development of an ultrasound triggered, thermally responsive hydrogel as an on-demand delivery system for bone repair. This research will be undertaken as a MSc Research Scholarship, which is funded by the Kuwait Cultural Office. Supervision on the research project will be provided by Dr. Tanya Levingstone and Professor Nicholas Dunne (both School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering) and Dr. Cathal Kearney from the Department of Anatomy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

Successful Grant Award

Congratulations to Professor Nicholas Dunne and Professor Helen McCarthy of Queen's University Belfast for securing a Medical Technologies IKC Industrial Partnership Proof of Concept award. The award will employ a post-doctoral researcher for 12 months to work on the development of a Class III medical device loaded with nanoparticles for enhanced in situ bone regeneration. The research project will be conducted in collaboration with PBC Biomed Ltd. (www.pbcbiomed.ie) and Mr David Beverland of Musgrave Park Hospital (Belfast) and Professor Cathal Moran of the Sports Surgery Clinic (Dublin).

Recent Journal Publications

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from the Key Laboratory for Biomechanics and Mechanobiology of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Biomedical Engineering, Beihang University and the State Key Laboratory of New Ceramic and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University have published a review paper in Regenerative Biomaterials.

Further information on the review paper entitled "Effect of microporosity on scaffolds for bone tissue engineering" can be found at http://bit.ly/2tOhkQQ.

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen's University Belfast, Athlone Institute of Technology, the Ceramic and Glass Institute (Spain) and the Rehabilitation Medicine Centre at the Mayo Clinic have published a research paper entitled "Composite cryogels for dual drug delivery and enhanced mechanical properties".

Well done to everyone that gave oral presentations at the 24th Annual Conference of the Bioengineering section of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland (Bioengineering in Ireland 2018) - there were nine research studies presented involving PI's or postgraduate students from MEDeng through collaborative projects with Queen's University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

Special congratulations also go to Mr John Redmond and Mr Ross Blair who were awarded 'Biomaterials Track - Best Oral Presentation' prizes in the Early-stage and Mature-stage Researcher categories.

John is currently enrolled as a first-year postgraduate researcher in MME and his paper was entitled 'DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED BIOMIMETIC 3D CULTURE MODELS FOR BREAST CONCER RESEARCH'. He is supervised by Prof Nicholas Dunne, Dr Tanya Levingstone and Dr Paul Buchanan (from Department: Nursing and Human Sciences) and is funded by the O'Hare Scholarship Fund.

Ross is a third-year researcher in the School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (QUB) and his paper was entitled 'PARAMETRIC OPTIMISATION OF A STRETCH BLOW MOULDED POLY(L-LACTIC ACID) CORONARY STENT'. Ross is co-supervised by Prof Nicholas Dunne and is funded by the Department of Employability & Learning NI.

2017

December 2017

Recent Journal Publications

Dr. Owen Clarkin and collaborators from University of Limerick, Waterford Institute of Technology and Trinity College Dublin publish a technical research paper in Materials Science “Surface modification of a novel glass to optimise strength and deliverability of an injectable alginate composite”. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10853-017-1466-y

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast publish a technical research paper in Materials Science and Engineering: C “Influence of alginate backbone on efficacy of thermo-responsive alginate-g-P(NIPAAm) hydrogel as a vehicle for sustained and controlled gene delivery”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092849311730437X

November 2017

Recent Journal Publications

Dr. Owen Clarkin and collaborators from Ryerson University and University of Malaya publish a technical research paper in Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials “Quantifying the mode II critical strain energy release rate of borate bioactive glass coatings on Ti6Al4V substrates” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1751616117303168

Dr. Owen Clarkin and collaborators from Trinity College Dublin publish a technical research paper in Journal of the Carbohydrate Polymers “Optimisation of a novel glass-alginate hydrogel for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms”.

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast, Trinity College Dublin and Colorado State University publish a technical research paper in Journal of the Macromolecular Bioscience “Polymerization of Poly(Alginate-Graft-N-Isopropylacrylamide) injectable thermoresponsive hydrogel with the potential for localized and sustained delivery of stem cells and bioactive molecules”. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mabi.201700118/full

October 2017

PhD Defense Congratulations to Sarah Brady on the successful defense of her PhD thesis, which focused on the optimisation of a novel glass-alginate hydrogel for the treatment of intracranial aneurysms. Sarah was supervised by Dr. Owen Clarkin.

September 2017

New Postgraduate Student

The MEDeng Centre would like to welcome John Redmond to the DCU. John will be working on the design, development and characterisation of engineering collagen‐based scaffolds for advanced ex vivo culture of breast tumours in a metastatic bone microenvironment. This research will be undertaken as part of a two-year O’Hare Postgraduate Research Scholarship, which is funded by the Faculty of Engineering and Computing (DCU). Supervision on the research project will be provided by Professor Nicholas Dunne and Dr. Tanya Levingstone (both School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering) and Dr. Paul Buchanan (School of Nursing, DCU)

BEAI Best Student Project and Presentation Award

Congratulations to Biomedical Engineering student Niall Connolly received the '2017 Best Student Project and Presentation Award' from the Biomedical & Clinical Engineering Association of Ireland (BEAI) for his Final Year Project entitled "Minimally invasive surgical device for cartilage repair". Niall’s Final Year Project was completed under the supervision of Dr. Tanya Levingstone. A short paper describing the work will be published in the Spring 2018 edition of the BEAI's journal Spectrum.

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine Best Paper Award

Congratulations to Professor Nicholas Dunne and his collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast having their technical research paper entitled 'Biocompatibility of calcium phosphate bone cement with optimised mechanical properties: an in vivo study' selected by Springer as the Best Paper Award for 2016 published in Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine. The award was presented at the European Society of Biomaterials 2017 meeting in Athens. Details of the paper can be found at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10856-016-5806-2

European Society of Biomaterials in Athens

Professor Nicholas Dunne was involved in four oral podium presentations and one posters through his collaboration with Queen’s University of Belfast. The oral podium presentations were presented by Eoghan Mullholland (Biomaterials for chronic wound treatment), Marine Chalanqui (Biomaterials in gene therapy) and Jonathan Acheson (Layer-by-layer deposition and self-assembly) and Dr. Susan Clarke (Ceramics).

August 2017

New Academic Lecturer joins MEDeng

MEDeng would like to welcome Dr. Tanya Levingstone to the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.Dr. Levingstone’s research is focused on the development of collagen-based tissue engineering approaches for bone and cartilage repair. Dr. Levingstone’s was recently listed as one of Ireland’s top 25 phenomenal women of engineering https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/women-engineering-ireland-iwd-2017.

World Congress of Biomechanics 2018Professor Nicholas Dunne and Dr. Tanya Levingstone are delighted to announce that they will be chairing a session at the 8th World Congress of Biomechanics (http://wcb2018.com/), which will be entitled “Multiscale Biomechanics of Scaffolds”. The session will be listed as part of the Tissue Engineering Track, which is being led by Professor Carlijn VC Bouten, Professor of Cell-Matrix Interaction, from the Soft Tissue Engineering & Mechanobiology group at Eindhoven University. For more information click here

May 2017

Welcome International InternsMEDeng would like to welcome two new international interns from the US - Philip Petrasko and Maryam Athar Khan.

Philip is currently in the second year of a Science-Business B.S. at Notre Dame University and was a recent recipient of a prestigious Naughton Scholarship (www.thenaughtonfoundation.com/scholarships). The focus of Philip’s internship is on the synthesis of ion-substitute ceramic based biomaterials and his supervisors are Professor Nicholas Dunne and Dr. Tanya Levingstone.

Maryam is currently studying Bioengineering at P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science in Lehigh University (Pennsylvania) and her internship is being funded through the Iacocca International Internship Program. During her time at DCU, Maryam will be designing and characterising stimuli-responsive polymer systems for bone tissue engineering applications and his supervisors are Professor Nicholas Dunne and Dr. Tanya Levingstone.

Recent Journal PublicationProfessor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Trinity College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland publish a paper in Acta Biomaterialia “Mesenchymal stem cell fate following non-viral gene transfection strongly depends on the choice of delivery vector”. For more information click here

April 2017

President's Awards for Innovation 2017

Congratulations to Dr. Owen Clarkin on winning the 2017 President’s Awards for Innovation (Academic & Research Category). This Award is in recognition Dr. Clarkin’s research portfolio that is focused on the development of a minimally invasive solution for the treatment of brain aneurysms called ‘EnduraGel’. Dr. Clarkin and his team hope that this new technology will improve the clinical outcomes of patients with cerebral aneurysms and allows doctors to treat aneurysms currently thought to be untreatable. Watch Owen describe his research https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TSQEmIgjlY

Tell it Straight 2017 CompetitionCongratulations to Simona Herbaj on winning the Tell it Straight competition, which took place on the 19th April in the Helix. Simona beat stiff competition to win category one, which was for first year PhD students. The title of her presentation was 'Sticks and stones may break your bones, but here’s an ingeneous way to fix them.'

Tell it Straight is DCU's annual communication competition specifically designed to encourage postgraduate research students to communicate their research and its potential impact to a non-specialist audience in a concise, dynamic and innovative way, utilising current technology.

Recent Journal PublicationProfessor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Queen’s University Belfast and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland publish a feature article in Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine “DNA vaccination for cervical cancer; A novel technology platform of RALA mediated gene delivery via polymeric microneedle”. For more information click here

March 2017

Recent Journal PublicationsProfessor Nicholas Dunne published a number of great research papers this month with and collaborators from various university in Ireland, UK, Spain and the US. Specific details are below:

Professor Nicholas Dunne and collaborators from Trinity College Dublin, Queen’s University Belfast, Colorado State University and Case Western Reserve University in Journal of Materials Chemistry B “RALA complexed α-TCP nanoparticle delivery to mesenchymal stem cells induces bone formation in tissue engineered constructs in vitro and in vivo”. For more information click here

Bioengineering in Ireland24At the recent BinI23 conference in Belfast, it was announced that MEDeng and Dublin City University will host Bioengineering in Ireland 2018. The conference is one of Ireland's longest-running and most active research conferences at the interface of engineering and health science. Regarding the news, Professor Dunne said “it is a great honour and privilege for MEDeng and DCU for the first time and we look forward to showcasing the high quality and excellent basic and applied research being conducted in Ireland”.

Recent Journal PublicationRichard O' Connor and Garrett McGuinness publish a review paper in Proceedings of the I Mech E Part H " Electrospun nanofibre bundles and yarns for tissue engineering applications: A review" For more information click here

September 2016

The MEDeng Centre would like to welcome Sonia Herbaj to the DCU. Sonia will be working on the design and development of an injectable biomaterial system for the repair and replacement of damaged or diseased hard bone tissue. This research will be undertaken as part of a four-year Government of Ireland Postgraduate Research Scholarship, which is funded by the Irish Research Council. Supervision on the research project will be provided by Professor Nicholas Dunne and Dr. Tanya Levingstone.

June 2016

Northern Ireland Biomedical Engineering Symposium 2016Congratulations to Monika Ziminska (School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, QUB) and Eoghan Mullholland (School of Pharmacy, QUB) on winning the best overall paper and best young research awards at the recent Northern Ireland. Both students are co-supervised by Professor Nicholas Dunne of MEDeng.

May 2016

World Biomaterials Congress in CanadaProfessor Nicholas Dunne was involved in four oral podium presentations and two posters through his collaboration with Queen’s University of Belfast. The oral podium presentations were presented by Philip Chambers (Biomaterials for therapeutic delivery), Marine Chalanqui (Biomaterials in gene therapy), Monika Ziminska (Layer-by-layer deposition and self-assembly) and Dr. Susan Clarke (Ceramics).

Professor Dunne was also at WBC 2016 as part of the executive committee of World Biomaterials Congress 2020 (http://www.wbc2020.org/), which will take place in Glasgow.

Recent Journal PublicationWell done to Professor Nicholas Dunne on his journal publication on the topic of three-dimensional printed porous structures that was recently published in the Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials in collaboration with Queen’s University of Belfast and University of Warwick. For more information click here

April 2016

New Professor of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering joins MEDengWe would like to welcome Professor Nicholas Dunne to Dublin City University and MEDeng as the Chair of School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering. He will also be the MEDeng Director and School Research Convener.

Professor Dunne’s research programme lies at the interface of materials science, engineering and biology. His focus is on developing stratified approaches for the design, manufacture and characterisation of drug-biomaterial combination medical devices for musculoskeletal bone repair and regeneration.

Prior to this appointment, Professor Dunne was the Professor of Biomaterials Engineering at Queen’s University of Belfast. He has also held Joint-Directorship positions of the Advanced Materials and Processes Research Cluster and the Polymer Processing Research Centre at Queen’s University of Belfast.

Recent Journal PublicationCongratulations to Professor Nicholas Dunne on his recent journal publication relating to the extrusion of calcium phosphate cements in the Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Medicine in collaboration with Queen’s University of Belfast, University of Cambridge and Technical University of Catalonia. For more information click here

March 2016

Recent Journal PublicationFind out more about a recent review paper publication of Professor Nicholas Dunne’s on the topic of MiRNA 34a as a potential therapeutic target for castration-resistant prostate cancer. This paper was published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets in collaboration with Dr. Helen McCarthy from the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University of Belfast. For more information click here

Jan 2016New Academic Lecturer joins MEDengMEDeng would like to welcome Dr. Owen Clarkin to the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering.

Dr. Clarkin’s research background has focused on orthopaedic and dental biomaterials. However, recently his research focus has moved into hydrogel based composite materials for the treatment of vascular diseases, including cerebral aneurysms, arteriovenous malformations and dural fistulae.

Dr. Clarkin will also take on the role of Program Chair for the Biomedical Engineering undergraduate degree programme.